§ MR. J. M. MACLEAN (Cardiff)I beg, to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will lay upon the Table the calculations on which he relied to show that the proportion of compensation to be paid in the coal trade under the Workmen (Compensation for Accidents) Bill would certainly not exceed I per cent. of the wages paid?
§ SIR MATTHEW WHITE RIDLEYSir, the calculations I gave were Departmental and private calculations based on official and other figures which are as much open to hon. Members as myself, and I do not propose to lay them on the Table.
§ MR. MACLEANasked whether the right hon. Gentleman would invite the representatives of the coal trade in South 178 Wales to meet him and discuss the question, so that they might see how the Bill bore upon them?
§ SIR MATTHEW WHITE RIDLEYsaid he was afraid that would involve tremendous discussion. He was quite willing to hear what those gentlemen had to say, but he might state that he had studied with the greatest care the statistics which had been laid before him, and to promise to discuss the whole matter was more than he could undertake.